Actuating transistor including single layer reentrant profile

ABSTRACT

Actuating a semiconductor device includes providing a transistor that includes a substrate and a first electrically conductive material layer, including a reentrant profile, positioned on the substrate. An electrically insulating material layer is conformally positioned over the first electrically conductive material layer and at least a portion of the substrate. A semiconductor material layer conforms to and is in contact with the electrically insulating material layer. A second electrically conductive material layer and third electrically conductive material layer are nonconformally positioned over and in contact with a first portion of the semiconductor material layer and a second portion of the semiconductor material layer, respectively. A voltage is applied between the second electrically conductive material layer and the third electrically conductive material layer and to the first electrically conductive material layer to electrically connect the second and the third electrically conductive material layers.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Reference is made to commonly-assigned, U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/218,482 entitled “TRANSISTOR INCLUDING SINGLE LAYER REENTRANTPROFILE”, and Ser. No. 13/218,490 entitled “PRODUCING TRANSISTORINCLUDING SINGLE LAYER REENTRANT PROFILE”, filed concurrently herewith.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to semiconductor devices, and inparticular to transistor devices.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In semiconductor processing technology, planar substrate surfaces whichare horizontal with respect to a wafer surface are patterned byphotolithographic methods in combination with selective etchingprocesses. During the processing of integrated circuits, reliefs with apronounced topography are formed on the wafer or substrate surface.Typically, this type of relief includes surfaces which are inclined orvertical with respect to the substrate surface. As sizes of integratedcircuits continue to shrink, it is becoming more and more necessary topattern vertical or inclined device surfaces so as to functionallydifferentiate these devices over their vertical extent while stillmaintaining pattern alignment. Examples of these types of semiconductordevices include deep trench capacitors, stacked capacitors, and verticaltransistors.

Currently, it is not possible to put patterns directly on walls whichare vertical with respect to the substrate surface using conventionalphotolithographic techniques. Usually, vertical wall patterning of thisnature is accomplished using a suitable filler material which, whenpartially filling in a trench, acts as a mask for the portions of thewall located underneath while allowing for processing of the walls abovethe filler material. For example, when an oxide is to be depositedexclusively on vertical walls below a filler material, the oxide isfirst deposited or produced over the entire surface of the relief. Therelief or trench is initially completely filled with a suitable fillermaterial. Then, the filler material is recessed back to a depth thatjust covers the desired oxide. After uncovered sections of the oxide areremoved, the remaining filler material is removed.

Alternatively, when an oxide is to be deposited or produced only inupper regions of a vertical wall, an etching stop layer, for example, anitride layer is first provided over the entire surface of the entirerelief pattern. A different material, susceptible to directionaletching, for example, polycrystalline silicon, is used to fill therelief, and is etched back as far as the desired coverage depth of thefinal vertical oxide. After the etching stop layer is removed from theunfilled sections of the walls, an oxide is deposited or generated usinga thermal technique in the uncovered regions. Next, the oxide isanisotropically etched which removes the deposited oxide fromhorizontal. This is followed by removal of the filler material and,then, the removal of the etching stop layer.

There are deposition processes which can be used to deposit thin filmson vertical or inclined surfaces of a substrate relief. However, it isdifficult to control the thickness of the layer deposited. Typically,the thickness of the coating decreases as the depth of the reliefincreases, for example, as the length of the vertical or inclined wallincreases. As such, layers deposited using these types of depositionprocesses have considerable differences in thickness over the length ofthe relief. These types of deposition processes include plasma-enhancedchemical vapor deposition (PECVD) and diffusion-limited deposition ofsilicon oxide using tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS).

As such, there is an ongoing need to provide semiconductor devicearchitectures that include patterned vertical or inclined devicesurfaces. There is also an ongoing need to provide manufacturingtechniques capable of processing small device features of semiconductordevices without requiring high resolution alignment tolerances. There isalso an ongoing need to provide higher current semiconductor devices byimproving the series resistance of the device.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to one aspect of the present invention, a method of actuatinga semiconductor device includes providing a transistor. The transistorincludes a substrate. A first electrically conductive material layer ispositioned on the substrate. The first electrically conductive materiallayer includes a reentrant profile. An electrically insulating materiallayer is conformally positioned over the first electrically conductivematerial layer and at least a portion of the substrate. A semiconductormaterial layer conforms to and is in contact with the electricallyinsulating material layer. A second electrically conductive materiallayer is nonconformally positioned over and in contact with a firstportion of the semiconductor material layer. A third electricallyconductive material layer is nonconformally positioned over and incontact with a second portion of the semiconductor material layer. Avoltage is applied between the second electrically conductive materiallayer and the third electrically conductive material layer. A voltage isapplied to the first electrically conductive material layer toelectrically connect the second electrically conductive material layerand the third electrically conductive material layer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the detailed description of the preferred embodiments of theinvention presented below, reference is made to the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross sectional view of an example embodiment of avertical transistor made in accordance with the present invention;

FIGS. 2 through 8 are schematic cross sectional views of process stepsassociated with an example embodiment of a method of producing thevertical transistor shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 9 is a graph showing performance I_(d)-V_(d) curve characteristicsfor the transistor shown in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 10 is a graph showing performance transfer characteristics for thetransistor shown in FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present description will be directed in particular to elementsforming part of, or cooperating more directly with, apparatus inaccordance with the present invention. It is to be understood thatelements not specifically shown or described may take various forms wellknown to those skilled in the art. In the following description anddrawings, identical reference numerals have been used, where possible,to designate identical elements.

The example embodiments of the present invention are illustratedschematically and not to scale for the sake of clarity. One of ordinaryskill in the art will be able to readily determine the specific size andinterconnections of the elements of the example embodiments of thepresent invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a schematic cross sectional view of a verticaltransistor 100 is shown. Transistor 100 includes a substrate 110, and anelectrically conductive material layer 120. Transistor 100 also includesan electrically insulating material layer 150 and a semiconductormaterial layer 160. An electrode or electrodes 710 and an electrode 810are also included in transistor 100.

Conductive layer 120 is positioned above substrate 110 such that a firstsurface of conductive layer 120 contacts a first surface of substrate110. Substrate 110, often referred to as a support, can be rigid orflexible.

Electrically conductive material layer 120 is appropriately etched (orshaped) to create a reentrant profile 170 in transistor 100. Thereentrant profile 170 shields at least some of the electricallyconductive material layer 120 from material deposited (or coated) usinga directional (or line of sight) deposition (or coating) process becausethe reentrant profile 170 of the electrically conductive material layer120 includes a first portion of electrically conductive material layer120 that overhangs a second portion of electrically conductive material120.

Electrically insulating material layer 150 conforms to the reentrantprofile 170 of transistor 100. Electrically insulating material layer150 includes first and second surfaces with the first surface being incontact with portions of surfaces of the electrically conductive layer120 and substrate 110. Semiconductor material layer 160 conforms toelectrically insulating material layer 150. Semiconductor layer 160includes first and second surfaces with the first surface being incontact with the second surface of electrically insulating layer 150.Distinct (or separate, or different) portions of the second surface ofsemiconductor layer 160 are in contact with electrode(s) 710 andelectrode 810.

Electrode(s) 710 includes a second electrically conductive materiallayer 700. When there is more than one electrode 710, different discretediscontinuous portions of second electrically conductive material layer700 form electrodes 710. Electrode 810 includes a third electricallyconductive material layer 800. Electrode(s) 710 and electrode 810 arepositioned or spaced apart from each other at different locations oftransistor 100. Electrode(s) 710 and electrode 810 can be differentportions of the same material layer (either material layer 700 ormaterial layer 800). When this happens, the second and thirdelectrically conductive material layers 700 and 800 are differentdiscrete discontinuous portions of the same material layer, for example,material layer 700. The material layer, for example, layer 700, ispreferably deposited in a single collimated deposition during whichreentrant profile 170 electrically separates each electrode from theother electrodes such that electrode(s) 710 and electrode 810 areincluded on distinct (different) discontinuous portions of the sameelectrically conductive material layer. Alternatively, the second andthe third electrically conductive material layers 700, 800 can bedistinct (different) material layers that are used to form electrode(s)710 and 810.

Electrically conductive material layer 120 functions as the gate oftransistor 100. In some example embodiments of transistor 100, one orboth of electrodes 700 function as the drain of transistor 100 whileelectrode 810 functions as the source of transistor 100. In otherexample embodiments of transistor 100, one or both of electrodes 700function as the source while electrode 810 functions as the drain.

The semiconductor device is actuated in the following manner. Aftertransistor 100 is provided, a voltage is applied between the secondelectrically conductive material layer 700 and the third electricallyconductive material layer 800. A voltage is also applied to the firstelectrically conductive material layer 120 to electrically connect thesecond electrically conductive material layer 700 (electrode 710) andthe third electrically conductive material layer 800 (electrode 810). Asdescribed above, the second electrically conductive material layer 700and the third electrically conductive material layer 800 can be the samematerial layer or can be different material layers.

The reentrant profile 170 of transistor 100 allows a dimension of thesemiconductor material channel of the transistor to be associated withthe thickness of the first electrically conductive material layer 120,which functions as the gate, of transistor 100. Advantageously, thisarchitecture of the present invention reduces reliance on highresolution or very fine alignment features during the manufacture oftransistors that include small channels.

Referring to FIGS. 2 through 8, schematic cross sectional views ofprocess steps associated with an example embodiment of a method ofmanufacturing transistor 100 are shown.

Generally described, transistor 100 is fabricated in the followingmanner. A substrate 110 is provided including an electrically conductivematerial layer 120. A resist material layer 140 is deposited over theelectrically conductive material layer 120. Resist material layer 140 ispatterned to expose a portion of electrically conductive material layer120, shown in FIG. 2. The exposed portion of electrically conductivematerial layer 120 is removed using a process which tends to create areentrant profile in the electrically conductive material layer 120, asshown in FIG. 3. A plasma etching process is one example of a processwhich causes a portion of electrically conductive material layer 120 tooverhang a different portion of electrically conductive material layer120 in order to create reentrant profile 170. The resist material layer140 can be deposited over electrically conductive material layer 120 andpatterned in the same process step.

After removal of photoresist material layer 140, shown in FIG. 4,substrate 110 and the remaining exposed portions of electricallyconductive material layer 120 are conformally coated with anelectrically insulating material layer 150, shown in FIG. 5.Electrically insulating material layer 150 is conformally coated with asemiconductor material layer 160, as shown in FIG. 6. An electricallyconductive material layer, for example, material layer 700 or materiallayer 700 and material layer 800, is directionally (or nonconformally)deposited (shown using arrows 900) over semiconductor material layer160, as shown in FIG. 7, in order to create electrode(s) 710 orelectrode 810, shown in FIG. 8.

A plasma can be used to remove the exposed portion of the electricallyconductive material layer 120 to create reentrant profile 170. In someexample embodiments, substrate 110 can include more than one materiallayer. The additional material layer(s) is included in some instances toimprove or maintain the structural integrity of substrate 110 during themanufacturing process. When substrate 110 includes more than onematerial layer, for example, a first material layer and a secondmaterial layer, the fabrication method can include removing the secondmaterial layer of substrate 110. When substrate 110 includes more thanone material layer, an electrically insulating material layer istypically positioned between electrically conductive material layer 120and the other layer(s) of substrate 110.

Referring back to FIGS. 2-8, vertical transistor device 100 begins witha substrate 110 that is non-conductive, either in whole or in part withrespect to at least the portion of the substrate that is adjacent toconductive material layer 120 (the top of the substrate 110 as shown inFIG. 2), such that electrical shorting of transistor 100 does not occur.A single conductive material layer 120 is applied to (for example,deposited or coated) onto substrate 110. Conductive material layer 120functions as the gate of transistor 100. A resist material layer 140 isapplied to conductive material layer 120. Resist 140 is patterned.

Substrate 110 does not interact appreciably with any of the materiallayers or the processing methods. Substrate 110, often referred to as asupport, can be used for supporting the thin film transistor (alsoreferred to as a TFT) during manufacturing, testing, or use. Thoseskilled in the art will appreciate that a support selected forcommercial embodiments can be different from one selected for testing orscreening embodiments. In some embodiments, substrate 110 does notprovide any necessary electrical function for the TFT. This type ofsubstrate 110 is termed a “non-participating support” herein. Usefulsubstrate materials include organic or inorganic materials. For example,substrate 110 can include inorganic glasses, ceramic foils, polymericmaterials, filled polymeric materials, coated metallic foils, acrylics,epoxies, polyamides, polycarbonates, polyimides, polyketones,poly(oxy-1,4-phenyleneoxy-1,4-phenylenecarbonyl-1,4-phenylene)(sometimes referred to as poly(ether ether ketone) or PEEK),polynorbornenes, polyphenyleneoxides, poly(ethylenenaphthalenedicarboxylate) (PEN), poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET),poly(ether sulfone) (PES), poly(phenylene sulfide) (PPS), andfiber-reinforced plastics (FRP). The thickness of substrate 110 canvary, typically from about 100 μm to about 1 cm.

A flexible support or substrate 110 is used in some example embodimentsof the present invention. Using a flexible substrate 110 allows for rollprocessing, which can be continuous, providing economy of scale andeconomy of manufacturing over flat or rigid supports. The flexiblesupport chosen is preferably capable of wrapping around thecircumference of a cylinder of less than about 50 cm in diameter, morepreferably 25 cm in diameter, and most preferably 10 cm in diameter,without distorting or breaking, using low force as by unaided hands. Thepreferred flexible support can be rolled upon itself. Additionalexamples of flexible substrates include thin metal foils such asstainless steel provided the foils are coated with an electricallyinsulating material layer to electrically isolate the thin filmtransistor. If flexibility is not a concern, then the substrate can be awafer or sheet made of materials including glass and silicon.

In some example embodiments, substrate 110 can include a temporarysupport or support material layer, for example, when additionalstructural support is desired for a temporary purpose, e.g.,manufacturing, transport, testing, or storage. In these exampleembodiments, substrate 110 can be detachably adhered or mechanicallyaffixed to the temporary support. For example, a flexible polymericsupport can be temporarily adhered to a rigid glass support to provideadded structural rigidity during the transistor manufacturing process.The glass support can be removed from the flexible polymeric supportafter completion of the manufacturing process.

The electrically conductive material layer 120, commonly referred to asa conductor, can be any suitable conductive material that permitsconductive material layer 120 to function as a gate 125 (shown in FIG.1). A variety of gate materials known in the art are also suitable,including metals, degenerately doped semiconductors, conductivepolymers, and printable materials such as carbon ink, silver-epoxy, orsinterable metal nanoparticle suspensions. For example, the gateelectrode can include doped silicon, or a metal, such as aluminum,chromium, gold, silver, nickel, copper, tungsten, palladium, platinum,tantalum, and titanium. Gate electrode materials can also includetransparent conductors such as indium-tin oxide (ITO), ZnO, SnO2, orIn2O3. Conductive polymers also can be used, for example polyaniline,poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS). Inaddition, alloys, combinations, and multilayers of these materials canbe used. The gate electrode (layer 120) can be deposited on substrate110 using chemical vapor deposition, sputtering, evaporation, doping, orsolution processed methods.

The thickness (the vertical direction as shown in FIG. 2) of the gateelectrode can vary, typically from about 100 to about 10000 nm. As thethickness defines the gate length, the thickness is usually thicker thantwice the thickness of the conformally coated materials in order toreduce the likelihood of electrical shorting in subsequent appliedmaterial layers.

Resist 140 can be a conventional photoresist known in the art such as apolymeric positive acting resist or a negative resist. Resist 140 can beexposed through a mask with a low resolution (>0.1 mm) alignment tosubstrate 110 and developed to yield a pattern of resist. In anotherexample embodiment, the pattern of resist 140 is accomplished using aprinting process, for example, flexography or inkjet printing thatprints the resist directly in a patterned manner without using a mask.

Referring back to FIG. 3, a schematic cross sectional view of transistor100 material layers after material processing are shown. In FIG. 3,electrically conductive material layer 120, is etched through patternedresist 140 to create a reentrant profile 170. The etchant can be anyorganic or inorganic material which, when used in a suitable etchingprocess, removes the conductive material without substantially attackingresist 140 and provides the reentrant profile 170. The etchant can havelittle impact on substrate 110. As such, the selected etchant oftendepends on the substrate 110 or the conductor 120.

Referring back to FIG. 4, at this point, resist 140 is removed if any ofthe resist 140 remains over the electrically conductive material layer120. Gentle cleaning can be performed on the electrically conductivematerial layer 120, if desired, provided that the cleaning process doesnot remove the reentrant profile 170.

Referring back to FIGS. 5 and 6, schematic cross sectional views of thesemi-conductor device after conformal coating of a dielectricnonconductive material, often referred to as an insulator, and asemiconductor material, respectively, are shown. Referring to FIG. 5, adielectric nonconductive material 150 is then conformally coated using aconformal coating deposition process over substrate 110 and thereentrant feature formed at the edge of conductive material layer 120.Applying a dielectric nonconductive material 150 using a conformalcoating process helps to maintain the reentrant profile 170. Thedielectric nonconductive material 150 is often referred to as the gatedielectric. Suitable nonconductive materials include strontiates,tantalates, titanates, zirconates, aluminum oxides, silicon oxides,tantalum oxides, titanium oxides, silicon nitrides, barium titanate,barium strontium titanate, barium zirconate titanate. As the dielectricmaterial separates the gate conductor from the semiconductor materialthat is to be applied, it is important that the conformally coatedmaterial be provided with a consistent or uniform thickness at least inthe region where the reentrant profile 170 and the gate are located.

Preferred processes for accomplishing conformal coating include atomiclayer deposition (ALD) or one of its derivatives such as spatial ALD(S-ALD) or plasma enhanced ALD (PEALD) because these processes yield auniform thickness coating over or on a highly varying topology. ALD andS-ALD are discussed in more detail below.

Referring to FIG. 6, a semiconductor material 160 is then coated using aconformal coating deposition process which helps to maintain thereentrant profile 170. This conformal coating process can be the sameprocess used previously to coat the dielectric material. Alternatively,the conformal coating process can be different. As the semiconductormaterial 160 acts as a channel between electrode(s) 710 and electrode810 when conductor 120 is energized, it is important that theconformally coated material be provided with a consistent or uniformthickness at least in the region where the reentrant profile 170 and thegate are located and more preferable in the areas between electrode(s)710 and electrode 810 including the area where the reentrant profile 170and the gate are located. A preferred process for conformally coatingincludes atomic layer deposition (ALD) or spatial ALD (S-ALD), aderivative of ALD. Either process, discussed in more detail below,yields a uniform thickness on a highly varying topology.

Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) is a process which is used to producecoatings with thicknesses that can be considered consistent, uniform, oreven exact. ALD produces coatings that can be considered conformal oreven highly conformal material layers. Generally described, an ALDprocess accomplishes substrate coating by alternating between two ormore reactive materials commonly referred to as precursors, in a vacuumchamber. A first precursor is applied to react with the substrate. Theexcess of the first precursor is removed is removed from the vacuumchamber. A second precursor is then applied to react with the substrate.The excess of the second precursor is removed from the vacuum chamberand the process is repeated.

Recently, a new ALD process has been developed which negates the needfor a vacuum chamber. This process, commonly referred to as S-ALD, isdescribed in at least one of U.S. Pat. No. 7,413,982, U.S. Pat. No.7,456,429, US 2008/0166884, and US 2009/0130858, the disclosures ofwhich are incorporated by reference herein. S-ALD produces coatings withthicknesses that can be considered consistent, uniform, or even exact.S-ALD produces coatings that can be considered conformal or even highlyconformal material layers. S-ALD is also compatible with a lowtemperature coating environment. Additionally, S-ALD is compatible withweb coating, making it attractive for large scale production operations.Even though some web coating operations may experience alignment issues,for example, web tracking or stretching issues, the architecture of thepresent invention reduces reliance on high resolution or very finealignment features during the manufacturing process. As such, S-ALD iswell suited for manufacturing the present invention.

The semiconductor material layer 160, often referred to as asemiconductor, can be any type of semiconductor provided thesemiconductor material can be deposited or coated using a conformalcoating process such as ALD or S-ALD. Examples of suitable semiconductormaterials include zinc oxide, zinc chalcogenides, indium tin oxides,gallium indium tin oxides, gallium tin oxides, cadmium chalcogenides,gallium pnictides, aluminum nictides, germanium, and silicon.

The semiconductor can optionally be doped with other materials toincrease or decrease the conductivity. In some example embodiments, adepletion mode device is desirable, and therefore carriers can be addedthrough the use of dopants. When the semiconductor is a zinc oxide, theuse of an aluminum dopant, for example, increases the electron carrierdensity. In this configuration, the gate is typically used to turn offthe device by making it negative relative to the drain and source.

A compensating dopant can also be used to deplete the intrinsic carrierdensity. When the semiconductor is zinc oxide, the use of nitrogen hasbeen found to decrease the electron carrier density making it lessn-type. In this configuration, the semiconductor can be made to operatein an accumulation mode to turn on the transistor when a positive gatevoltage is applied. These dopants are often added as compounds duringthe growth process but can also be added after the semiconductormaterial layer has been applied using a process such as ion implantationand thermal diffusion.

Referring back to FIGS. 7 and 8, schematic cross sectional views of thesemi-conductor device during, and after directional coating of anelectrically conductive material are shown. After semiconductor materiallayer 160 has been deposited, electrode(s) 710 and electrode 810 areformed by depositing second electrically conductive material layer 700(and third electrically conductive material layer 800 is some exampleembodiments) using a directional (or line-of-sight) deposition processwhich does not deposit or coat material into the reentrant profile 170.This can also be referred to as a nonconformal deposition process.Examples of suitable directional deposition processes include thermalevaporation, electron beam evaporation, sputtering, or laser ablation.The active channel gap between electrode(s) 710 and electrode 810 ismaintained by the shadow cast by the reentrant profile 170 of theelectrically conductive material layer 120. Electrode(s) 710 andElectrode 810 function as the source or drain of transistor 100.

The drain and the source of transistor 100 can be selected from eitherof electrode 710 and electrode 810 with the selection typically beingbased on the application and the characteristics of the contemplateddevice. As shown in FIG. 1, electrode 810 is on the top of the mesaformed by conductor 120 while electrode(s) 710 is not. As such,electrode 710 and electrode 810 are on different planes. Any necessaryinterconnects can be accomplished using conventional techniques that arewell known in the art, for example, material layer leveling and viafeed-through.

Although electrically conductive material layer 120 is a single materiallayer, substrate 110, dielectric nonconductive material layer 150,semiconductor material layer 160, electrode(s) 710, electrode(s) 810 orcombinations thereof can include one or more layers provided that thefunctional role of the layer remains unchanged. Additional layers, forexample, leveling layers, barrier layers, adhesion layers, can beincluded in the semiconductor device as long as the function of thelayers described above is preserved.

Experimental Results

A 460 nm molybdenum material layer was deposited via sputtering on a62.5 mm square glass substrate. A patterned material layer ofphotoresist was formed by spin coating at 1000 rpm Microposit S1805resist (Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials LLC, Marlborough, Mass.)placed on a hot plate for 60 sec at 115 degrees Celsius and then exposedthrough a glass/chromium contact mask including lines for 75 seconds ona Cobilt mask aligner (Cobilt model CA-419 from ComputervisionCorporation, Sunnyvale, Calif.), using only the edges of the glasssubstrate as a low resolution or crude alignment. The sample was thenalignment. The sample was then developed for 60 seconds in MicropositMF-319 developer (Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials LLC, Marlborough,Mass.) and rinsed for 5 minutes in DI water.

The conductive molybdenum was plasma etched with 0.3 torr SF6 at 200 Wfor 7 minutes using a Technics plasma etcher. The substrate was thenrinsed with acetone to remove the photo resist, then rinsed in HPLCgrade isopropanol, and then allowed to dry.

The substrate was then conformally coated with a material layer 10 nmthick of aluminum oxide at 200 degrees Celsius using the S-ALD processdescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,413,982 and the S-ALD apparatus describedin U.S. Pat. No. 7,456,429 with the organo-metallic precursors trimethylaluminum and water with an inert carrier gas of nitrogen.

The substrate was then conformally coated with a 10 nm material layer ofzinc oxide at 200 degrees Celsius using the precursors diethyl zinc andconcentrated ammonia solution and nitrogen as the carrier gas.

The electrodes were applied by evaporation. Aluminum was evaporatedthrough a shadow mask including square holes which ran perpendicular andcompletely cross each line on the substrate. The aluminum was 50 nmthick.

Testing of the transistor was accomplished by using a probe station tocontact the aluminum on top of the line, the aluminum on one side of theline and the chromium gate metal which acts as the gate. Referring toFIG. 9, a graph showing performance I_(d)-V_(d) curve characteristicsfor the transistor is shown. As can be seen in FIG. 9, the drain currentversus drain voltage is very responsive to the gate voltage.

Referring to FIG. 10, a graph showing performance transfercharacteristics for the transistor is shown. As can be seen in FIG. 10,the drain current responds well to the gate voltage, ranging from asmall current of about 10⁻¹¹ amps at a gate of −1 volt to greater than amilliamp at a gate of 3 volts for a drain voltage of 2 volts. The gatecurrent, which has very little leakage at all gate voltages, is alsoshown

The invention has been described in detail with particular reference tocertain preferred embodiments thereof, but it will be understood thatvariations and modifications can be effected within the scope of theinvention.

PARTS LIST

-   -   100 transistor    -   110 substrate    -   120 first conductor; first electrically conductive material        layer    -   125 gate    -   140 resist    -   150 a dielectric nonconductive material layer    -   160 semiconductor; semiconductor material layer    -   170 reentrant profile    -   700 second electrically conductive material layer    -   710 electrode(s); source or drain    -   800 third electrically conductive material layer    -   810 electrode; drain or source    -   900 directional (nonconformal) deposition arrow

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method of actuating a semiconductordevice comprising: providing a transistor including: a substrate; afirst electrically conductive material layer positioned on thesubstrate, the first electrically conductive material layer including areentrant profile; an electrically insulating material layer conformallypositioned over the first electrically conductive material layer, and atleast a portion of the substrate; a semiconductor material layer thatconforms to and is in contact with the electrically insulating materiallayer; a second electrically conductive material layer nonconformallypositioned over and in contact with a first portion of the semiconductormaterial layer; and a third electrically conductive material layernonconformally positioned over and in contact with a second portion ofthe semiconductor material layer; applying a voltage between the secondelectrically conductive material layer and the third electricallyconductive material layer; and applying a voltage to the firstelectrically conductive material layer to electrically connect thesecond electrically conductive material layer and the third electricallyconductive material layer.
 2. The method of claim 1, the secondelectrically conductive material layer and the third electricallyconductive material layer being different portions of the same materiallayer, wherein applying a voltage between the second electricallyconductive material layer and the third electrically conductive materiallayer includes applying a voltage to different discontinuous portions ofthe same material layer.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the secondelectrically conductive material layer is positioned over the substrateand not over the first electrically conductive material layer, and thethird electrically conductive material layer is positioned over thefirst electrically conductive material layer and over the substrate. 4.The method of claim 2, wherein the second electrically conductivematerial layer is positioned over the substrate and not over the firstelectrically conductive material layer, and the third electricallyconductive material layer is positioned over the substrate and not overthe first electrically conductive material layer.
 5. The method of claim2, wherein the substrate includes a plurality of material layers.
 6. Themethod of claim 5, wherein the plurality of material layers includes anelectrically insulating material layer that is positioned in contactwith the electrically conductive material layer.
 7. The method of claim1, wherein the second electrically conductive material layer and thethird electrically conductive material layer are different portions ofthe same material layer.